Here's a Good Article

I found this link today: The Good Shepherds. It's an article posted at Christianity Today about the (Christian) Agrarian movement. It touches on the Christian aspects of agrarianism, but doesn't go into much detail. But it's a good "intro" if anyone is interested.

Finally

Well, we finally had our first frost this morning. I don't remember ever having the first frost so late! We still covered up our tomatoes, peppers, and zucchini. They're still producing! We covered them again tonight, but I know eventually we'll have to give it up.

I also had my first big post-farmer's market grocery shopping trip this weekend. I hadn't bought any vegetables from a grocery store at all since last May. It's been great! We were able to cut our grocery shopping trips to once every 2-3 weeks. We'll have to start going more often now, but it was great while it lasted. Next year hopefully I can preserve more produce so that even after the season is over we still won't have to shop every week. The only problem with that is we only have so much freezer space.

One thing I really enjoyed doing this year was growing our own celery and then drying it. We can't stand to eat celery just plain (raw), so I just dried all of it. I use it in recipes and in making stock. So my jars of dried celery should last us all winter.

One neat thing about the farmer's market is that you feel daring enough to try new things from time to time. This year we tried chard and kohlrabi. The chard especially is very good. You cook it much like you would spinach, but its flavor is a little milder. It's delicious with a big slab of butter melted over it and a little salt.

Cod Liver Oil

Our family started taking our cod liver oil again a few weeks ago. It's good to take this time of year because of the vitamins A and D. With us getting less and less sunlight right now, the vitamin D is especially important. Cod liver oil is also very high in omega-3 essential fatty acids. I think this is one of the things we have started doing that helps boost our immune system so we don't get too sick in the winter.

I have heard a lot of people complain about the taste of cod liver oil, but it is really not that bad. We get ours orange-flavored. It's not so great-tasting that you'll want to guzzle the whole bottle, but you wouldn't want to do that anyway, right? Just a teaspoon or so a day (or a tablespoon for adults with health issues) is all you need.

The cheaper brands might be ok, but it is also possible they could be contaminated with mercury. You might look on the label of whatever you buy to make sure it has been certified mercury-free. A couple of good brands that I know of are Carlson's and Dr. Ron's Blue Ice. I know there are gel capsules with cod liver oil in them, but I like the plain liquid best. You'd have to take quite a few capsules to get a whole tablespoon of oil!

The only contra-indication that I know of for cod liver oil is if you are currently taking blood thinners you might want to talk to your doctor first before taking it.

Children's Literature: Pick of the Week

James Herriot's Treasury for Children, Warm and joyful tales by the author of All Creatures Great and Small

This is just a lovely book about the experiences of a rural vet and the various animals that he encounters. We've been reading it for our studies in first grade (my second son). The illustrations are just beautiful, and I think I enjoy reading it as much as my kids enjoy hearing it.

We had a country vet visit our little homestead last week as well. My only registered goat, a Nubian, came down sick last week. Turns out she was stricken with goat polio, which is a vitamin B deficiency. So we've been giving her shots twice a day and she seems to be doing better. We are hoping that her vision isn't damaged permanently. Thanks to everyone who prayed for our Ellie. It feels a little silly asking people to pray for a goat of all things, but...all creatures great and small the Lord God made them all, right?

Here's a link to an article reviewing a new book I'd like to have a look at (Good Calories, Bad Calories, by Gary Taubes). The book reviewer didn't seem to think much of the book, but it sounds to me like maybe the book's author has a few things figured out.

Long Time No Write (which gives me license to ramble)

Well, it's been awhile since I've written here, so I thought I'd check in today. Time has been flying by. I'm not sure where September went. It zoomed past at the speed of light. Now here we are finishing up the first week of October with nary a frost in sight. We're still eating zucchini casserole once a week, and the tomatoes are still blooming. I brought in the rest of my cabbage last weekend to make our family favorite: cortido (Latin American sauerkraut). This weekend I am drying chopped celery from the garden. Despite all this good eatin', I've really been neglecting my garden dreadfully. I haven't been watering it like I should! We've had very little rain this year. We have a volunteer squash plant in the old garden where we throw the compost. I think it might be a butternut squash. The biggest one isn't ripe yet, but I'm crossing my fingers. The big question is: when will we get that first frost?

On the critter front, our little farm hit its maximum number of occupants towards the end of August. Now those numbers are dwindling. We butchered one group of chickens the end of August, and the second group will be done in another week or two. Our two steers and one lamb went to the butcher last week, and we've also done 3 turkeys. Besides that we have lost 4 ducks and several chickens to outside causes. One of our ducks got hit by a car during an unauthorized road crossing (serves the bird the right for wandering off the property). Of course, we'd rather eat them than have them get hit by cars or devoured by wild animals, but there's not much we can do about them going across the road. Other than...eating them before they cross the road.

School is humming along, and I am making the necessary adjustments for the new school year. I gave it three weeks, found some things that needed changing, and we're working on that now. We just finished Week 4 of our school year. We have school for three weeks, then take one week off. We do have school in June and July, but then we take August off. That makes 36 very full weeks of school.

I enjoy having my kids home with me every day. That way I can micro-manage their lives. Just kidding! No, actually what I like is that we are putting into practice something that I have always felt intuitively but never really fully realized until fairly recently: that is that the healthy home should be one in which all members of the family contribute to the household economy, and there is as much producing as there is consuming. As Americans, we are all already very good at consuming (that is after all the American way). What we need more practice at is producing. You know, being productive. Making needed things and maintaining what you have so that you don't have to buy another one.

Speaking of being productive, I feel really productive these days. I usually get up at around 8:00 (anything before 8 is TOO EARLY). Now with our daylight hours dwindling, when I get up in the morning and go out to milk the goats, the sun has just risen over the horizon. It makes me feel like a real farmer, up at daybreak, and doin' the chores. Yee haw.

Well, I guess that's enough rambling for now. Back to what you were doing. Something productive, I hope. ;-)

On the Fence about Flu Shots?

Well, it's that time of year again. We are all being bombarded with advertising aimed at "helping" us decide whether or not we should get the flu shot. Last year I posted a link to this crazy video about how you can make your own flu shot for next to nothing. I just watched it again this morning. If you're on the fence about getting a flu shot, watch this first! It will help you decide. As an aside, here's a bit of trivia: how can you increase by ten times your chance of getting Alzheimer's disease? Answer: get the flu shot for five consecutive years.